Shipping lines team up with Evergreen in Asia to Australia trade

APL, Hamburg Süd, Hapag-Lloyd and Hyundai Merchant Marine have decided to team up with Evergreen in the trade between North East Asia and Australia.

With this cooperation the four AAS partners (Asia Australia Services) together with Evergreen will jointly provide one of the most comprehensive service networks in the trade with two fixed-day weekly service loops with the following ports of call:

Northern Loop: Yokohama - Osaka - Pusan - Qingdao - Shanghai - Ningbo - Melbourne - Sydney - Brisbane - Yokohama Southern Loop: Kaohsiung - Yantian - Hong Kong - Melbourne - Sydney -Brisbane - Kaohsiung

The services will operate with five modern 3,500 TEU nominal vessels (AAS Northern Loop) and four modern 2,500 TEU nominal vessels (AAS Southern Loop). Hamburg Süd will provide three vessels, Hyundai Merchant Marine and APL two vessels each, and Hapag-Lloyd and Evergreen one vessel each.

Evergreen will become a vessel provider in the AAS Northern Loop.
From the 4th week of October 2008 onwards, and subject to fulfilling Australian and Japanese legal and regulatory requirements, Evergreen will have fixed space allocation on the AAS Northern Loop.

Evergreen's own vessel (3,500 TEU nominal) will be phased into the AAS Northern Loop in the 4th week of November. In exchange, Evergreen will discontinue its current TCA service. The last Southbound sailing of the TCA service will take place in the 3rd week of October 2008.

Thereafter, all vessels currently deployed in the TCA service will no longer trade on the North-East Asia to Australia route.

Evergreen will purchase slots on the AAS Southern Loop from the 4th week of October 2008 onwards.

While the above two-loop system will allow the lines to offer exceptional port coverage in Asia and some of the fastest transit times in the trade, the cooperation will result in a net capacity reduction equivalent to 800 TEU per week or 3.2 per cent of total trade capacity. Significant cost increases and very poor freight rates both Southbound and Northbound have made this step necessary.<Korea Shipping Gazette>